"The Other Swedes"
~ Honoring Him and His Works ~
Dr. Mark Lucas
~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world audience
~ Honoring Him and His Works ~
Dr. Mark Lucas
~ Messiah conductor bringing the Lindsborg “Oberammergau of the Plains" to a "new" world audience
21st century Lindsborg's Bethany College Oratorio Society Messiah Festival twenty-eighth conductor Dr. Mark Lucas will go down in college history as the conductor who presented the "first" Presser Hall Copley Stage live Messiah performance worldwide through the technology of live streaming due to the national mandates of the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic.
This 2020 Messiah Festival Holy Easter Week performance had to be postponed to October 18, 2020, and, when performed, it was severely modified at all levels, down from over 200 chorus members to 28, and from a full orchestra of about 45 or so, to only 15, with social distancing in place and all performers wearing masks. However, Dr. Lucas conducted these performers beautifully through the sacred music with its profound Holy message!
This performance was strictly from a "new" world stage to a "new" world audience, all due to live streaming.
In 2021, the Messiah Festival performance of the Messiah was able to return to its traditional Easter Sunday schedule even though the Pandemic continued. Once again, with masks being worn and social distancing in place, a chorus of 100 was scattered throughout the Presser Hall audience in their voice sections. Similarly, a full orchestra was scattered upon the Copley Stage in their instrument sections. Dr. Lucas, on stage between chorus and orchestra conducting back and forth, once again presented a much needed and beautifully inspirational Handel's Messiah, to, this time, a very limited but grateful Lindsborg audience, and to that "still new" world audience, due to live streaming.
Thus, this pandemic live streaming debut began a new and exciting chapter for the Lindsborg Bethany College Oratorio Society Messiah, the “Oberammergau of the Plains," as it was titled in the 1944 Reader's Digest article which noted that the Messiah Festival is called by critics ”the finest of its kind in the world.” For through live streaming, it can now reach those Swedish Lutheran and Swedish American Lutheran audiences of today, so familiar with its historical significance to the Lutheran Swedish America of the past, where thousands of patrons gathered and choruses grew to 500 or more, while press reviews raved so much, especially during the tenures of conductors Mr. Samuel Thorstenberg, Dr. Hagbard Brase, and Dr. Elmer Copley, from the end of the 19th century into the late 20th century.
Yet on a global scale now in this 21st century, the opportunity is available to share annually the Lindsborg Bethany College Easter Handel's Messiah, and the Good Friday Bach's masterpiece, The Passion of our Lord According to St. Matthew, St. Matthew Passion, that became part of the Messiah Festival tradition in 1925, and since the 1929 new rendition by Dr. Brase that debuted for the dedication of Presser Hall on Good Friday (that coincided exactly with the 200th anniversary of its debut by Bach at St. Thomas' Church, in Leipzig, Germany, from where this great composer conducted it on Good Friday in 1729).
When Smoky Valley history looks back on the pandemic era, Dr. Lucas may be looked upon by some that his greatest contribution to the tradition of the Messiah Festival Holy Easter Week performances was that of his determination that "the show must go on!" For this annual Messiah performance has yet to miss a year, the tradition of which began in 1882. Thus, it remains the longest annual running performance of the “Messiah” in North America.
In Lindsborg, as a tenor, Dr. Lucas began participating in the Messiah performances in high school and then at Bethany College where he would receive a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education in 1994. There he became well-versed in the history of the Messiah and Saint Matthew Passion performance traditions. Holding past teaching and professor positions in music at the Kansas Marion Unified School District and at Kansas Wesleyan University respectively, as a published and tenured professor in music education and choral activities from the University of Oklahoma (OU) at Norman, Oklahoma, Dr. Lucas began his Bethany College career in 2013 becoming the Oratorio Society Conductor for the Messiah Festival, of which he is the Artistic Director, after the Easter of that year. He is Associate Professor of Music and serves as a Co-chairman of the Music Department. He is also the conductor of the Bethany College Choir and Bethany College Chamber Ensemble and serves as the Director of the Oratorio Society and Choral Activities. He teaches voice, conducting and music education courses.
This 2020 Messiah Festival Holy Easter Week performance had to be postponed to October 18, 2020, and, when performed, it was severely modified at all levels, down from over 200 chorus members to 28, and from a full orchestra of about 45 or so, to only 15, with social distancing in place and all performers wearing masks. However, Dr. Lucas conducted these performers beautifully through the sacred music with its profound Holy message!
This performance was strictly from a "new" world stage to a "new" world audience, all due to live streaming.
In 2021, the Messiah Festival performance of the Messiah was able to return to its traditional Easter Sunday schedule even though the Pandemic continued. Once again, with masks being worn and social distancing in place, a chorus of 100 was scattered throughout the Presser Hall audience in their voice sections. Similarly, a full orchestra was scattered upon the Copley Stage in their instrument sections. Dr. Lucas, on stage between chorus and orchestra conducting back and forth, once again presented a much needed and beautifully inspirational Handel's Messiah, to, this time, a very limited but grateful Lindsborg audience, and to that "still new" world audience, due to live streaming.
Thus, this pandemic live streaming debut began a new and exciting chapter for the Lindsborg Bethany College Oratorio Society Messiah, the “Oberammergau of the Plains," as it was titled in the 1944 Reader's Digest article which noted that the Messiah Festival is called by critics ”the finest of its kind in the world.” For through live streaming, it can now reach those Swedish Lutheran and Swedish American Lutheran audiences of today, so familiar with its historical significance to the Lutheran Swedish America of the past, where thousands of patrons gathered and choruses grew to 500 or more, while press reviews raved so much, especially during the tenures of conductors Mr. Samuel Thorstenberg, Dr. Hagbard Brase, and Dr. Elmer Copley, from the end of the 19th century into the late 20th century.
Yet on a global scale now in this 21st century, the opportunity is available to share annually the Lindsborg Bethany College Easter Handel's Messiah, and the Good Friday Bach's masterpiece, The Passion of our Lord According to St. Matthew, St. Matthew Passion, that became part of the Messiah Festival tradition in 1925, and since the 1929 new rendition by Dr. Brase that debuted for the dedication of Presser Hall on Good Friday (that coincided exactly with the 200th anniversary of its debut by Bach at St. Thomas' Church, in Leipzig, Germany, from where this great composer conducted it on Good Friday in 1729).
When Smoky Valley history looks back on the pandemic era, Dr. Lucas may be looked upon by some that his greatest contribution to the tradition of the Messiah Festival Holy Easter Week performances was that of his determination that "the show must go on!" For this annual Messiah performance has yet to miss a year, the tradition of which began in 1882. Thus, it remains the longest annual running performance of the “Messiah” in North America.
In Lindsborg, as a tenor, Dr. Lucas began participating in the Messiah performances in high school and then at Bethany College where he would receive a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education in 1994. There he became well-versed in the history of the Messiah and Saint Matthew Passion performance traditions. Holding past teaching and professor positions in music at the Kansas Marion Unified School District and at Kansas Wesleyan University respectively, as a published and tenured professor in music education and choral activities from the University of Oklahoma (OU) at Norman, Oklahoma, Dr. Lucas began his Bethany College career in 2013 becoming the Oratorio Society Conductor for the Messiah Festival, of which he is the Artistic Director, after the Easter of that year. He is Associate Professor of Music and serves as a Co-chairman of the Music Department. He is also the conductor of the Bethany College Choir and Bethany College Chamber Ensemble and serves as the Director of the Oratorio Society and Choral Activities. He teaches voice, conducting and music education courses.
The quality of his oratorio performances truly touches the hearts of his known audiences in the Kansas Smoky Valley and with others from coast to coast! While sharing the College's Messiah and Saint Matthew Passion historical performances of excellence with his students, he grooms them and others for their own Oratorio Society performances of excellence! Before the Pandemic, this was so apparent when one COMPARES Dr. Lucas' Easter Sunday 2015 Handel's Messiah's "Worthy is the Lamb" and "Amen" chorus performance Here, with London's 2020 "Royal Choral Society" performance Here, and with Salt Lake City's 2014 "Mormon Tabernacle Choir" Here! This shows that like those legendary conductors of the past that he, like them, is committed to that Bethany College "Messiah" tradition of excellence.
After graduating from Bethany, at the University of Oklahoma Dr. Lucas earned a Masters Degree in Choral Conducting in 1999, and, later in 2007 from OU, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree with his dissertation on "Adolescent Males’ Motivation to Enroll or Not Enroll in Choir." In 2015, he traveled to Kyoto, Japan, to participate in the Poster Session at the International Symposium on "Performance Science" where he presented portions of his dissertation. In that same year he introduced the College to its first "Real Men Sing Festival" that has become an annual festival where in 2020, just before the Pandemic hit, he conducted an impressive chorus of 800 students, from grades five through twelve, to perform in Presser Hall for this festival.
Before joining the Bethany faculty in 2013, Dr. Lucas could have appropriately been addressed as "a European traveling conductor." For he made three significant European tours. In June of 2004, as the conductor for the choir of the Kansas Ambassadors of Music consisting of more than 100 high school students, he co-conducted their performances throughout seven countries over a 17 day period. Then in August of 2010 for 12 days, with members of the University of Oklahoma choirs, he served as Chorusmaster under the direction of OU Conductor and Artistic Director Dr. Richard Zielinski in Austria at the renown Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt. The works he conducted there with a professional orchestra were Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Te Deum and Missa in Tempori Belli by Franz Joseph Haydn. In May of 2011 with the University of Oklahoma Touring Choir, he co-conducted this ad hoc ensemble comprised of current students and alumni at various impressive and beautiful venues throughout the South of France, including Theatre of Gray with the Chorale de Dampierre, Lyon Basilica, Etang des Aulnes, Basilica of St. Maximin, Menton, Villfranche sur Mer.
His most recent European tour was in May of 2018. This was his first with the Bethany College Choir and the Bethany College Handbell Ensemble. It was joined by some college friends and alumni as well. The tour was to Germany, the home of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the Protestant Reformation, and classical composers including George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). While in Germany, they visited the home of the Messiah's composer Handel which is now a museum in the city of Halle; and they were also honored to sing and play during the worship services at Martin Luther's “Castle Church” in Wittenburg; and then they traveled on to Bach’s "St. Thomas Church" in Leipzig. Next was Sweden, home of the Lindsborg Swedes' antecedents. Here they sang and played at places of significance to the early Lindsborg's Bethany Church and Bethany College, i.e. to Pastors Olof Olsson and Carl Aaron Swensson, such as the Uppsala Cathedral, in the city of Uppsala, a 40 minute or so bus ride from Stockholm. Then, they were off on a 5 hour bus ride south to the Värmland region, to Lindsborg founder and Bethany Church founder Pastor Olsson's Sunnemo Church in Värmland, from where he and his small flock began their immigrating journey to America and to the Kansas Smoky Valley in 1869. Here at Sunnemo Church Dr. Lucas' Bethany College's Choir and Handbell Ensemble were privileged to perform! Previously to this European tour, their American performance tours included Colorado, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and New York City.
(Choir tours "like these" were begun with the eighteenth Bethany College Oratorio Society Conductor Dr. Elmer Copley who was at Bethany for 29 years, from 1960 to 1988. However, in 1918, under twelfth conductor Dr. Hagbard Brase whose tenure was for 31 years, from 1915-1946, the first Oratorio Society train tour took place at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, near Junction City, Kansas, for an audience of 4,000 or more soldiers. The train, with 11 coaches of chorus and orchestra members and pastors, left Lindsborg to give an inspirational performance of hope to these young men going off to war. Several more Dr. Brase Oratorio Society train tours followed.)
There is no doubt that Dr. Lucas will continue to promote future tours, once the Pandemic is under control and more normal travel is available again. Pre-pandemic, Dr. Lucas had already drafted a four-year tour plan.
From Dr. Lucas' website under a main section Music at Bethany in the subsection Bethany Choir and Bells Tour, writes, "We believe that a Choir and Handbell tour should serve as the living embodiment of the mission of the college and should reflect its core values. This is why each day on tour a different group selected from the ensembles leads the group in devotionals, and why each trip includes a service project. We believe, as does Bethany College, in the development of the whole person." This form of worship may very well be a carryover from the Messiah organizer Mrs. Alma Swensson who started her Oratorio Society rehearsals first with prayer.
For Lindsborg and Bethany College, the silver lining of this most deadly 2020 pandemic was the need to use live streaming so as not to miss a year of sharing their annual Easter Messiah performance since it started in 1882. This, in turn, created a new world stage for a new world audience! And, in so doing, Dr. Lucas has become a new world pioneer Messiah conductor who is leading the way in using new technology that will be spreading the good news through the inspirationally moving Handel's Messiah and Bach's St. Matthew Passion from the Lindsborg Bethany College Oratorio Society.
After graduating from Bethany, at the University of Oklahoma Dr. Lucas earned a Masters Degree in Choral Conducting in 1999, and, later in 2007 from OU, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree with his dissertation on "Adolescent Males’ Motivation to Enroll or Not Enroll in Choir." In 2015, he traveled to Kyoto, Japan, to participate in the Poster Session at the International Symposium on "Performance Science" where he presented portions of his dissertation. In that same year he introduced the College to its first "Real Men Sing Festival" that has become an annual festival where in 2020, just before the Pandemic hit, he conducted an impressive chorus of 800 students, from grades five through twelve, to perform in Presser Hall for this festival.
Before joining the Bethany faculty in 2013, Dr. Lucas could have appropriately been addressed as "a European traveling conductor." For he made three significant European tours. In June of 2004, as the conductor for the choir of the Kansas Ambassadors of Music consisting of more than 100 high school students, he co-conducted their performances throughout seven countries over a 17 day period. Then in August of 2010 for 12 days, with members of the University of Oklahoma choirs, he served as Chorusmaster under the direction of OU Conductor and Artistic Director Dr. Richard Zielinski in Austria at the renown Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt. The works he conducted there with a professional orchestra were Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Te Deum and Missa in Tempori Belli by Franz Joseph Haydn. In May of 2011 with the University of Oklahoma Touring Choir, he co-conducted this ad hoc ensemble comprised of current students and alumni at various impressive and beautiful venues throughout the South of France, including Theatre of Gray with the Chorale de Dampierre, Lyon Basilica, Etang des Aulnes, Basilica of St. Maximin, Menton, Villfranche sur Mer.
His most recent European tour was in May of 2018. This was his first with the Bethany College Choir and the Bethany College Handbell Ensemble. It was joined by some college friends and alumni as well. The tour was to Germany, the home of Martin Luther (1483-1546), the Protestant Reformation, and classical composers including George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), Richard Wagner (1813-1883), and Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). While in Germany, they visited the home of the Messiah's composer Handel which is now a museum in the city of Halle; and they were also honored to sing and play during the worship services at Martin Luther's “Castle Church” in Wittenburg; and then they traveled on to Bach’s "St. Thomas Church" in Leipzig. Next was Sweden, home of the Lindsborg Swedes' antecedents. Here they sang and played at places of significance to the early Lindsborg's Bethany Church and Bethany College, i.e. to Pastors Olof Olsson and Carl Aaron Swensson, such as the Uppsala Cathedral, in the city of Uppsala, a 40 minute or so bus ride from Stockholm. Then, they were off on a 5 hour bus ride south to the Värmland region, to Lindsborg founder and Bethany Church founder Pastor Olsson's Sunnemo Church in Värmland, from where he and his small flock began their immigrating journey to America and to the Kansas Smoky Valley in 1869. Here at Sunnemo Church Dr. Lucas' Bethany College's Choir and Handbell Ensemble were privileged to perform! Previously to this European tour, their American performance tours included Colorado, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and New York City.
(Choir tours "like these" were begun with the eighteenth Bethany College Oratorio Society Conductor Dr. Elmer Copley who was at Bethany for 29 years, from 1960 to 1988. However, in 1918, under twelfth conductor Dr. Hagbard Brase whose tenure was for 31 years, from 1915-1946, the first Oratorio Society train tour took place at Camp Funston, Fort Riley, near Junction City, Kansas, for an audience of 4,000 or more soldiers. The train, with 11 coaches of chorus and orchestra members and pastors, left Lindsborg to give an inspirational performance of hope to these young men going off to war. Several more Dr. Brase Oratorio Society train tours followed.)
There is no doubt that Dr. Lucas will continue to promote future tours, once the Pandemic is under control and more normal travel is available again. Pre-pandemic, Dr. Lucas had already drafted a four-year tour plan.
From Dr. Lucas' website under a main section Music at Bethany in the subsection Bethany Choir and Bells Tour, writes, "We believe that a Choir and Handbell tour should serve as the living embodiment of the mission of the college and should reflect its core values. This is why each day on tour a different group selected from the ensembles leads the group in devotionals, and why each trip includes a service project. We believe, as does Bethany College, in the development of the whole person." This form of worship may very well be a carryover from the Messiah organizer Mrs. Alma Swensson who started her Oratorio Society rehearsals first with prayer.
For Lindsborg and Bethany College, the silver lining of this most deadly 2020 pandemic was the need to use live streaming so as not to miss a year of sharing their annual Easter Messiah performance since it started in 1882. This, in turn, created a new world stage for a new world audience! And, in so doing, Dr. Lucas has become a new world pioneer Messiah conductor who is leading the way in using new technology that will be spreading the good news through the inspirationally moving Handel's Messiah and Bach's St. Matthew Passion from the Lindsborg Bethany College Oratorio Society.
Go Here to Mark Lucas: Conductor, Educator, Musician.
More on the Lindsborg Bethany College Messiah history and related information can be found as follows:
Go Here to Olsson's Influence, the Swenssons,' the Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah,"1882 on ...
Go Here to Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on...
Go Here to "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
Go Here to Special 20th Century Messiah Performances by the Bethany College Oratorio Society
Go Here to Handel's "Messiah" & Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion" ~ Described for viewers unfamiliar with these oratorios
Go Here to Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
Go Here to Thorstenberg & Brase ~ Remembering them as the "earliest" internationally acclaimed
Lindsborg Bethany College Messiah Oratorio Society conductors
Go Here to Dr. & Mrs. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering them and their 29 years of dedication to that Bethany College "Messiah" tradition of excellence
Go Here to Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s," Carl XVI Gustaf's, performance, 1976
Go Here to Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration" performance, 1981
Go Here to Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady* of Lindsborg, organizer of the "Messiah" performances by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
More on the Lindsborg Bethany College Messiah history and related information can be found as follows:
Go Here to Olsson's Influence, the Swenssons,' the Musicians' and Singers' "Messiah,"1882 on ...
Go Here to Their Bethany College Handel's "Messiah" Performances, 1882 on...
Go Here to "Messiah" Performers, Venues & Audiences, Press and Broadcasts
Go Here to Special 20th Century Messiah Performances by the Bethany College Oratorio Society
Go Here to Handel's "Messiah" & Bach's "St. Matthew's Passion" ~ Described for viewers unfamiliar with these oratorios
Go Here to Bethany College "Messiah Auditorium" / "Ling Auditorium" / "Ling Gymnasium" 1895 - 1946
Go Here to Thorstenberg & Brase ~ Remembering them as the "earliest" internationally acclaimed
Lindsborg Bethany College Messiah Oratorio Society conductors
Go Here to Dr. & Mrs. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering them and their 29 years of dedication to that Bethany College "Messiah" tradition of excellence
Go Here to Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the “Messiah” conductor for the Bethany College "Swedish King’s," Carl XVI Gustaf's, performance, 1976
Go Here to Dr. Elmer Copley ~ Remembering him as the "Messiah" conductor for the Bethany College "Centennial Celebration" performance, 1981
Go Here to Mrs. Alma Christina Lind Swensson ~ Remembering her as Mrs. Rev. Dr. Swensson, the First Lady* of Lindsborg, organizer of the "Messiah" performances by Ms. Karen A. Humphrey
Sources: Mark Lucas Biography and Fourth Swedish American Bethany College President Emory Lindquist's 1975, Bethany in Kansas, the history of a college.
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2018
Sweden
European Traveling Conductor Dr. Lucas and the Bethany College Choir
2018
Sweden
European Traveling Conductor Dr. Lucas and the Bethany College Choir
Courtesy of Bethany College Oratorio Society "Messiah" conductor Dr. Mark Lucas
* * *
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated, or obviously concluded it is not.
Copyright © 2021 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
Swedes: TheWayTheyWere
~ restoring lost local histories ~
reconnecting past to present
* * *
All color photography throughout Swedes: The Way They Were is by Fran Cochran unless otherwise indicated, or obviously concluded it is not.
Copyright © 2021 www.swedesthewaytheywere.org. All rights reserved.
